Ecological Footprint of Kiwi Lifestyles Under the Microscope

An in-depth research project is set to consider how kiwis live in terms of the consumption of the world’s key resources and how communities can become more resilient by reducing their dependence on these resources as costs rise over the next 20 – 30 years.

The New Zealand Footprint Project is taking place in two South Island and three North Island communities and is led by the University of Victoria, Wellington in partnership with the Auckland Council and the Otago Polytechnic Centre for Sustainable Practice.

Differing socio-economic and cultural behaviours in New Zealand result in a range of ecological footprints. The project studies these differences in resource use based on socio-economic ‘tribes’ as identified in the ‘8 Tribes – The Hidden Classes of New Zealand’ research (Caldwell & Brown 2007).

The project has been designed to investigate how New Zealand and its 8 defined ‘tribes’ can best adapt their lifestyles choices to meet the challenge of global demand resulting in increasingly expensive resources.

Ella Lawton of the Otago Polytechnic Centre for Sustainable Practice is working with the farming community of Tarras and the service town of Cromwell to first establish their resource use, and then look at what might be done to reduce that use as resources become more costly. She says the project will ultimately provide the communities involved with tools that will be increasingly useful for measuring and reducing resource use.

“This is a fascinating subject and we are now inviting people to be part of this project. I want to work with a range of people from each community so we can really study how we use our resources within the different cultural ‘tribes’ and how this impacts on our collective community footprint. Initially, all we require is for people to grant us time for an interview that of course is completely confidential. Some, hopefully all, will want to learn more about their resource use and have additional involvement with the project.”

Ms Lawton is already working with Tarras School which has fully embraced the project. She is now calling for other volunteers from Tarras and Cromwell to take part.

Over the period of the research Ms Lawton, and her counterparts in the North Island, will develop a picture of the collective community footprints of each of the five communities. Workshops will then be offered for those who wish to participate with others in the community to find ways to reduce the collective footprint of each community. Local councils will assess how they can use ecological footprint data from the study to support those communities.

“We expect to create calculation tools that can be used by anyone, particularly local councils, to calculate variables such as the different impacts of activities and projects so people and organizations can make choices that can work for them.”

Ms Lawton says New Zealand has plenty of work to do in this field.

“A ‘fair earth share’ footprint has been calculated at 1.7 global hectares per person based on a world population of 7 billion by the end of 2011. New Zealanders ecological footprint was calculated in 2010 at 4.89 global hectares per person. There’s also a hefty local disparity with people on higher incomes consuming far more in terms of global hectares than those at the lower end of the scale, as well as disparities potential between urban and rural populations. These local disparities are why the ‘8 Tribes’ research is to be used as a source of insight into the differing patterns of consumption and behaviour.”

The overarching intent of the New Zealand Footprint Project is to further understand the ecological impacts of New Zealand’s differing communities. Once data is collated and analyzed, the project will move into a ‘backcasting’ process where communities create a future vision and then plan for it.

In Auckland, the research is being carried out by Dr Maggie Lawton and James Samuels who are working with communities in Waitakere and on Waiheke Island.

ENDS

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